The Use of Youtube in Facilitating Undergraduate Students' Speaking Skills in the School of Education at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

Abstract

This study examines ESL learners' perceptions of YouTube videos as supplementary tools for enhancing their speaking skills and ranks improvements in vocabulary, pronunciation, and sentence structure as a result of using YouTube. The research was conducted in response to the increased use of YouTube in global language learning, especially after the shift to online classes following the COVID-19 pandemic. Many Malaysian ESL learners perform better in writing than in speaking assessments, indicating a lower awareness of the importance of mastering speaking skills for the workforce. To address this, the study focuses on undergraduates in the School of Education at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), with ten participants in semi-structured interviews and 60 respondents in an online questionnaire. Using a mixed-method approach, the qualitative component explores learners' perceptions, while the quantitative part ranks improvements in specific language elements. Findings reveal that YouTube videos are effective in facilitating speaking skills due to digital immersion and enhanced communicative competence. Pronunciation showed the most significant improvement, followed by vocabulary and sentence structure. These insights suggest that YouTube could be further integrated into language learning with clear guidelines for improving speaking skills, and future research could explore optimizing YouTube features to match learners' preferred styles.